Reasonable Control or Too Much Christian Zeal?

The media have reported that the First Presbyterian Church of Sherman Oaks will require teachers to be professing Christians, but the real issue is, “Who controls the school?”

For 24 years the director had run a non-religious school and had developed an excellent reputation. During this period, the director successfully resisted church efforts to integrate Christian doctrine into the curriculum, even refusing to allow pictures of Christ to be hung in classrooms.

Ultimately, a number of legal disputes with individual parents forced the church to examine its relationship with the school. In that evaluation, it became clear that the school had been unresponsive to church policy while the church bore full responsibility for its activities.

Clearly, the church has the right to determine the nature and content of the programs it will offer and the qualifications of those who will offer them. Every religious group demands and supports that freedom. That the church wants a Christian environment and curriculum is not surprising; what is surprising is that it permitted an autonomous, non-religious school to develop and function on its grounds for 25 years.

JOE McGHIE

Sherman Oaks